For my birthday, my various siblings each got me money, which seems like a really dull present, but which actually allowed me to pool all that money and invest in the "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" blu-ray sets. Which is excellent.
Of the Harry Potter films, I've long considered "Chamber of Secrets" to be my favourite. I also like "Order of the Phoenix" and "Deathly Hallows, Part 2". The rest I generally consider quite flawed - "Philosopher's Stone" is too close to the source material, and so too long, while "Goblet of Fire" and "Half-blood Prince" each compress the story far too much, and so lose a great deal in the translation. "Deathly Hallows, Part 1" is just a waste of two and a half hours. (That leaves "Prisoner of Azkaban", which may well be the best of all, technically speaking. I just found the change in tone a bit too jarring - it wasn't what I expected after CoS, and I've never really cared for it as a result.)
On Saturday night, LC and I sat down and watched the first half of Chamber of Secrets, and I was dismayed to find that it just wasn't as good as I remembered. It's likely a result of seeing them grow up, and thus advance in their craft, but the three lead child-actors are actually quite painful to watch here. And while the story remains excellent, the film just takes too long to get to the point - by the time we gave up and went to bed, Harry had only just found Riddle's book, and by that point we'd already watched 90 minutes, with another hour to go.
It's a real shame. Still, perhaps the other films will have grown on me instead? Indeed, I'll have to give PoA another look, as the tone might fit my more cynical view better...
#23: "Snuff", by Terry Pratchett (excellent book; his best in years. Still, not the book of the year.)
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